Cops entered House for evidence: RR Patil

Home minister RR Patil has trashed legislators’ allegation that two police officials had entered the premises of the state legislature to arrest MLAs Kshitij Thakur and Ram Kadam for allegedly assaulting sub-inspector (SI) Sachin Suryavanshi. He clarified that they had, instead, gone to the Vidhan Bhavan in connection with their probe into the assault case.

“The police did not plan to make any arrest there as that would have led to more confrontation with the legislators,” Patil told DNA.

The home minister added that a police officer, inspector KV Nigde, had been suspended for entering the premises of Vidhan Bhavan without a pass. On agitated legislators’ demand to suspend a second policeman as well, Patil said he had a valid pass.

He said the duo had given a letter explaining that they wanted to enter the premises for investigations. The two policemen reportedly wanted to examine the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage and other evidence related to the case.

On the MLAs’ contention that the SI was off duty when the attack took place, Patil said the section of law pertaining to assaulting a public servant to deter him from performing his duty does not apply only when he is on duty.

On the CCTV footage, Patil admitted that the visuals are unclear and do not show the faces of the legislators who took part in the free-for-all. He, however, questioned whether action on the assault should be revoked only because there is no clear CCTV footage nailing the MLAs. Patil added that politicians cutting across parties, including Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, had condemned the assault.

He pointed out that a day before Suryavanshi was assaulted, he had in the legislative council ordered an inquiry against him for allegedly misbehaving with Thakur.

@dhavalkulkarni